1851-61. Mayhew, Lon. Lab., 1., 36. As for the hair, they [coster-lads] say it ought to be long in front, and done in figure-six curls or twisted back to the ear, Newgate knocker style.
1867. Smyth, Word Book, 497, s.v. Newgate bird. The men sent on board ships from prisons; but the term has also been immemorially used, as applied to some of the Dragon's men in the voyage of Sir Thomas Roe to Surat, 1615.
1868. Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, vi., vi. Two greasy locks of hair carefully twisted into limp curls . . . known to his poetically and figuratively-disposed friends as Newgate knockers.
1871. Echo, 11 Dec. The greasy and begrimed wide-awake, which they wear pushed back, for the display of a philosopher's brow, and a Newgate knocker of ambitious dimensions and oleaginous rigidity.
1885. Cornhill Mag., Sept., 259. Some of them beardless, others with a fringe of hair around their fares, such as the English call a Newgate frill.
1888. Daily News, 1 Dec. Visions of Bill Sykes, with threatening look and carefully-trained Newgate knockers, are almost inevitably suggested in the mind of the recipient.
1892. Tit Bits, 19 March, 421, 2. The frill round the chin . . . called the Newgate frill, and the sweep's frill, would, I imagine, have made the Antinous, or the Apollo Belvedere, look undignified and slovenly.
Verb. (old).—To imprison.
1740. North, Exam., 258. Soon after this he was taken up and Newgated.
New Guinea, subs. phr. (Oxford
Univ.).—See quot.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue [Egan], s.v. New Guinea. First possession of income.
New-hat, subs. (cheap-jacks').—See
quot.
1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 104. I'll lay you a new hat (i.e., a guinea).
New Jerusalem. See Cubitopolis.
Newland. See Abraham Newland.
New Light, subs. phr. (old).—1.
See quot.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue [Egan], s.v. New Light. One of the New Light; a methodist; [one] who attends the gaols to assist villains in evading justice.
2. (American thieves').—New money.—Matsell (1859).
Newmarket, subs. (tossing).—See
quots. 1823 and 1842: cf. Sudden
Death.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, etc., s.v. Newmarket; best two in three as a phrase is erroneous; races are not decided there by the best in three, as prevails elsewhere.
1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, xxxvi. He imparted to her the mystery of going the odd man or plain Newmarket for fruit, ginger-beer, baked potatoes, or even a modest quencher.
b.1842. Maginn. Bob Burke's Duel. . . . Which is it to be—two out of three, as at Newmarket, or the first toss to decide? Sudden death, said I, and there will soon be an end of it.
Newmarket-heath commissioner,
subs. phr. (old).—A
highwayman; a road-agent
(q.v.)
New pin. Smart (bright, neat,
or nice) as a new pin, phr.
(colloquial).—First-class.
1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, xxii. One day when I came into the kitchen, there sat Jack looking as smart as a new pin.
New plates. See Plates.
News. Tell me news! phr.
(colloquial).—A retort to a stale
jest or chestnut (q.v.); usually
preceded by 'that's ancient history':
cf. Queen Anne.
